A Banksy painting honoring Britain’s health workers during the coronavirus pandemic has sold for 16.8 million pounds ($23.2 million), auction house Christie’s says. Proceeds from the sale will be used to fund U.K. health organizations and charities. https://t.co/cNf8YSbPRx
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) March 23, 2021
The US administered 2.3 million vaccine shots today, bringing the total to 130 million, or 39.3 doses per 100 people, enough to cover 20.0% of the population. The 7-day moving average declined very slightly to 2.49 million shots per day. pic.twitter.com/VzcwkNs8Wi
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) March 25, 2021
The U.S. has surpassed 30 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, Johns Hopkins University says, nearly three months after the country hit 20 million cases. COVID-related deaths now total more than 545,000. https://t.co/rrtxk1px7A
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 25, 2021
The number of US people dying from #Covid19 has declined, thank the heavens & vaccines. The daily toll has been <1,000 deaths several days lately.
Still, 200,000 Americans have died in 2021 from this virus. That's the population of Salt Lake City or Amarillo, Tex.
So much loss. pic.twitter.com/G3HgWpMsOr— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 24, 2021
The US had +66,538 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 today, bringing the total to over 30.7 million. The 7-day moving average rose to over 58,000 new cases per day. pic.twitter.com/qkt9DLKupG
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) March 25, 2021
======
For the first 8 months of the pandemic, these countries kept the virus in check. Now they are ascending and the worst-hit (new cases per capita) in the world.
The B.1.1.7 strain is contributing. pic.twitter.com/j6HGnYzLU3— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) March 24, 2021
How are European countries tackling the Covid pandemic?https://t.co/Q1BN4VbhXu
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 24, 2021
EU leaders to discuss boosting Covid vaccine supplies https://t.co/Rp7HH5eF4x
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 25, 2021
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel reverses plans for Easter coronavirus lockdown https://t.co/FF2Fm3bdNc
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 24, 2021
German COVID-19 cases jump by most since early Jan https://t.co/cDOgmO91BB pic.twitter.com/Dmd3ZW62hc
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 25, 2021
Germany committing millions to vaccinate Holocaust survivors https://t.co/wwU7AHQh3U pic.twitter.com/EYXeU6aB1H
— The Hill (@thehill) March 24, 2021
… The Associated Press reported that the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, based in New York, announced the agreement Wednesday, in which Germany’s government will provide $13.5 million to ensure that Holocaust survivors in many countries will have access to vaccines in a timely fashion.
The concerns stem from worries that COVID-19 poses a greater danger to Holocaust survivors in part due to their age as well as longstanding medical conditions many still face resulting from the Holocaust.
Officials with the Conference told the AP that thousands of survivors in Ukraine are thought to still be waiting for the vaccine, while others in the U.S. and Israel are also facing difficulties, some of which stems from unfamiliarity with online scheduling systems…
More than half of Israelis receive both COVID-19 vaccine doses https://t.co/Jq3RJAQerO pic.twitter.com/7LpeyIXQRq
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 25, 2021
Clinical trial volunteers for Russia’s second coronavirus vaccine EpiVacCorona have demanded the country’s Health Ministry launch an investigation to explore claims the jab does not produce an immune responsehttps://t.co/6M7kk5yay1
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) March 24, 2021
Hong Kong’s sudden suspension of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has been another blow to its vaccination program. It is struggling against a wall of public distrust. https://t.co/xlyBgWFoA9
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 25, 2021
India's daily COVID-19 infections rise to five-month high https://t.co/z7K49u1w9k pic.twitter.com/K1rDkJL7uK
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 25, 2021
What are the risks of India's new "double mutant" Covid-19 variant? https://t.co/cuThMZ2kAC
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 25, 2021
India temporarily halts Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine exports https://t.co/mmk6zs3ZpU
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 24, 2021
BREAKING NEWS. The Philippines records its highest one-day tally of coronavirus cases on Thursday, March 25, 2021, with 8,773 new cases.
Total cases now at 693,048.https://t.co/olWQ4wuXz7 pic.twitter.com/ZSJ523K1v8
— Rappler (@rapplerdotcom) March 25, 2021
An 85-year-old Peruvian man danced for joy after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine and said he looked forward to going back to the club and dancing pic.twitter.com/WTspEJNPxd
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 24, 2021
Cuba will administer experimental #COVID19 shots to nearly entire population of the capital Havana by May.
It began late phase trials of 2 of their 5 experimental shots, Soberana2 & Abdala. If successful, they'd be Latin America's first homegrown vaccineshttps://t.co/dEVDGoxuvi
— MicrobesInfect (@MicrobesInfect) March 24, 2021
Brazil is in political disarray as it surpassed 300,000 deaths from COVID-19, the second nation to hit the grim landmark after the United States. https://t.co/pgFa2QoCKc
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 25, 2021
Over 3,000 COVID deaths in Brazil yesterday as healthcare system collapses under crushing caseload.
The single worst managed pandemic crisis response of any major economy. pic.twitter.com/Sm1Sa16hTZ
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) March 24, 2021
Researchers in Mexico have designed a 'nose-only mask' which they say protects you while eating and drinking pic.twitter.com/juzIGAhSrP
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 25, 2021
With a case-fatality rate of 9% Mexico has, by far, the highest in the world. Con una tasa de letalidad del 9% Mexico tiene la tasa mas alta del mundo. Una tragedia. (https://t.co/GgktEx2enC
— Carlos del Rio (@CarlosdelRio7) March 24, 2021
======
AstraZeneca now says its vaccine is 76% effective, not 79%. The new percentage is in an updated analysis released after earlier challenges to its data. The new analysis was done after an independent US panel said the company had used outdated figures https://t.co/yX7kMAF7wq
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 25, 2021
Scientists have analyzed how the UK & South African coronavirus variants escape the immune system. A computational study of the spike glycoprotein bound to the human cell's ACE2 receptor, reveals how the variants bind more securely https://t.co/wXCHAtxghO via @medical_xpress
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 25, 2021
China has approved an inhaled nasal spray vaccine for clinical trials. The vaccine is being developed by CanSino. China currently has 5 coronavirus vaccines on the market. The nasal spray is the 1st inhaled product https://t.co/S4du0FioL3 pic.twitter.com/HNbbMRNTTS
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 24, 2021
Flu shot is associated with fewer, less severe Covid cases, according to a new study that reviewed +27k medical charts of patients tested for Covid. Of the 13k who got a flu shot, 4% tested positive. Among 14k+ who hadn't gotten a shot ~5% were positive https://t.co/CaPOKyCJlG pic.twitter.com/LLrZjeHenV
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 24, 2021
======
More than three months into the U.S. vaccination drive, many of the numbers are encouraging. Seventy percent of Americans 65 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and COVID-19 deaths have dipped below 1,000 a day on average. https://t.co/1jrenf5keE
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 24, 2021
Cuomo gave family members special access to COVID-19 tests: Washington Post https://t.co/MBYxX5Z7Ky pic.twitter.com/bPjNgv3hnI
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 25, 2021
Intent to get vaccinated by religious affiliation in the US:
Atheists: 90%
Agnostics: 80%
Catholics: 77%
Black protestants: 64%
White evangelical protestants: 54%
White evangelicals: 45%— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) March 24, 2021
YY_Sima Qian
On 3/24 China reported 0 new domestic confirmed & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Imported Cases
On 3/24 China reported 11 new imported confirmed cases, 10 imported asymptomatic cases:
Overall in China, 4 confirmed cases recovered, 12 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 2 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 327 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 165 active confirmed cases in the country (163 imported), none in critical/serious condition, 232 asymptomatic cases (all imported), 4 suspect cases (all imported). 3,604 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
On 3/25 Hong Kong reported 9 new cases, 5 imported & 4 domestic (all have source of infection identified).
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY stats:
New cases = 175
Still at 1194 deaths
1.8% positivity
30.8% vaccinated with at least 1 dose
111,436 people fully vaccinated
228,316 people with at least 1 dose
That new cases number wouldn’t be so scary if it was just mild infections, but people are still dying of this crap around here.
OzarkHillbilly
I am not surprised.
YY_Sima Qian
Vaccine roll out has accelerated significantly, with open sign ups organized through both places of employment and through the local administrative units (sub-districts and communities). My wife just had her first shot yesterday via the university she works at, a SinoPharm vaccine developed by Wuhan Institute of Biological Products. The second shot will be a month later.
I tried to sign up via the local community, but was told their system did not allow passport number as entry for personal information, and they did not have the means to enter it manually into the system. Apparently, their setup only allowed swiping of the national ID card, and all the information would be automatically entered. People from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau can also just swipe their Mainland China residence card, if they reside in China. People with only foreign passports are out of luck. This is a frequent inconvenience, many of the new technologies and systems that have made so much of modern life so easy in China (including routine interactions with government bureaucracy) are not implemented with foreigners in mind. It’s back to the 90s/00s for us, visiting counters and filling out paper forms. I guess there are not enough of us to begin with, now far fewer with the pandemic, to warrant the investment.
I just read in a local government paper an article extolling how local community workers helped an Iranian national get vaccinated, accompanying her to the vaccination site, helping her fill out all the forms, and handholding her through the entire process. I wonder where is my VIP treatment…
Anyway, it seems that I can get vaccinated via the university my wife works at. With a foreign student population (greatly reduced though it may be with the pandemic), they have a system for processing foreigners through the vaccination program. I will give it a try this week.
Soapdish
Thank you, Anne. Glad to see the computer is up and running.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@OzarkHillbilly: Me neither. Don’t believe in Darwin, be subject to Darwin. It’s been happening for decades.
YY_Sima Qian
@OzarkHillbilly: What is the difference between White Evangelical Protestants and White Evangelicals?
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s not true, because the media states that minorities are less likely to get vaccinated.
MomSense
I got an appointment for my first shot on Wednesday the 31st. After messing around with the local hospital system and my primary care office websites with no luck, I checked out Walmart and signed up right away.
Amir Khalid
@YY_Sima Qian:
White Evangelical Catholics?
OzarkHillbilly
@YY_Sima Qian: Damned if I know. Maybe it’s the level of stupid.
Mary G
The OC continues to rock.
Only 82 new cases today; first day under 100 that’s not a reporting mistake for a year.
Only 172 people in hospital, 36 of them in ICU.
Not bad for a county of 3.3 million people.
Our numbers have all descended into the orange tier:
Adjusted Daily Case Rate per 100,000
3.5
Test Positivity Rate
2.1%
Health Equity Quartile Positivity Rate
3.2%
We are still in the red tier and supposed to stay there while keeping the numbers in the orange range for three weeks until we can open up to the orange tier levels. Gov. Gav has been pretty squishy on that and may let us do it sooner, will have to wait and see. Numbers of vaccines administered are only released on Thursday, so we’ll see tomorrow.
Of course variants remain the wild card. I know we have two homegrown ones in California, not sure if the bad ones have gotten here or not. Not going to let up on precautions.
Soprano2
Many pharmacies in my city have a “waste” list you can get on. I know two people who got their shots that way. I’ve been telling everyone about it. My husband and mom are getting their 2nd one on Friday, and mine is scheduled for April 12th. I can’t wait!
leeleeFL
@OzarkHillbilly: I guess many African-Americans will never trust the medical community, and while I understand it, it breaks my heart.
Sadly, but also truthfully, if the bottom two tiers weren’t endangering others, I wouldn’t give a rat’s tail. WTAF is really wrong with these people?
YY_Sima Qian
@Amir Khalid: Evangelicals are by definition Protestants and not Catholics.
Van Buren
@YY_Sima Qian: Google doesn’t even know, as far as I can tell.
YY_Sima Qian
According to the China National Health Commission, as of 3/24, 85.8597M doses have been injected to date in the country.
Geo Wilcox
@Soprano2: That’s how my 31 year old daughter got her first shot. One of her colleagues has a dad who works at a kidney dialysis center and they had left over shots. Her boss signed the whole crew up and they got them Monday.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@YY_Sima Qian: There are evangelical Catholics.
OzarkHillbilly
It’s all about them. The smallest sacrifice for the benefit of others is an ungodly infringement upon their liberties.
Mousebumples
My husband is getting his first jab at Walgreens today! I’m making him some oreo breakfast to celebrate.
We should both be fully vaccinated by his birthday in May, so we are working on planning a long weekend at an airbnb. Our daughter won’t be vaccinated (under 2 years) but hopefully we can still have some fun as a family outside our 4 walls…
mrmoshpotato
@Mousebumples:
Is there an Oreo version of Coooooooookie Crisp?
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Heh, wikipedia agrees with you, except for when it doesn’t:
I think my definition is far more accurate:
An evangelical is a pain in my atheist ass.
FTR, I had heard the term evangelical catholic before but could not remember the context.
Elizabelle
OK, Ian Bremmer took the figures for his tweet from a Pew Research Poll. FWIW, I do not understand why Pew did not poll (or report on) Jewish and Muslims as well. And the “evangelical Protestant breakout” baffles me — what other kind is there?
10 facts about Americans and coronavirus vaccines
Pew’s language:
In other words, they are the selfish (ETA: and ignorant) assholes we take them for. I wish Jesus would come back and kick them in the ass. Although perhaps COVID will do it for Him (and us).
rikyrah
@MomSense:
Yeah??
YY_Sima Qian
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Just looked it up on Wikipedia, and you are right! However, it refers to a subset of Lutherans, who are by definition Protestants. In any case, it seems to be far too esoteric a demographic to be distinctly identified in any survey. Probably just a sloppy typo on Ian Bremmer’s part
Edit: Ninja’ed by OzarkHillbilly.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: There are Catholics that refer to themselves as evangelical
ETA: There may also be evangelicals that are not part of a mainstream Protestant religious convention. Think Megachurches.
Robert Sneddon
It’s a bit rah-rah perhaps but the BBC is carrying a report on how the British Recovery trials were set up about a year ago, to study drug treatments for people suffering severe COVID-19 symptoms. Most of the drugs tested were busts and proven to be useless by the trials but we got dexamethasone out of it and that’s saved a lot of people around the world.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m an evangelical jackal.
rikyrah
@leeleeFL:
Trust is one thing.
Once employers require it, the Black numbers will go up.
Vaccine or your paycheck…..Vaccine will win
MagdaInBlack
@mrmoshpotato: Yes. Yes there is
Eta or there was…..one I’m thinking of is discontinued, damn it.
Mary G
@YY_Sima Qian: White evangelical Protestants are legally affiliated with a mainstream religion, mostly Baptist, but don’t practice its rules. They are on their way out, but it can take years because lawsuits fly over who gets what asset. A lot like Brexit.
Regular white evangelicals belong to churches that have finished separating or were started fresh on their own by some pastor who wants to make more money. They are loosely affiliated in such ways as hating abortion, but not financially and there’s no consensus about the fiddly details of practicing. For example, some “speak in tongues” AKA spewing nonsensical syllables supposedly coming direct from God, some don’t.
danielx
@OzarkHillbilly:
I believe Mike Pence is an evangelical Catholic.
Elizabelle
That number turns up again. Item 5 of the “10 Facts about Americans …” from Pew.
OzarkHillbilly
Because they don’t count, which surprises me because I always thought atheists didn’t.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 1,360 new cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 338,168 cases. He also reports two new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 1,248 deaths — 0.37% of the cumulative reported total, 0.39% of resolved cases.
There are currently 14,504 active and contagious cases; 157 are in ICU, 72 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 1,491 patients recovered and were discharged, for a cumulative total of 322,416 patients recovered – 95.34% of the cumulative reported total.
Eight new clusters were reported today: Persiaran Maktab in Selangor; Bandar Sri in Kuala Lumpur; Paloh Rambai in Kelantan; Perusahaan LPK in Kedah; Merinding in Labuan; Putra Satu in Putrajaya; and Tenegang and Siasai Tamu in Sabah.
Siasai Tamu is a community cluster. The rest are workplace clusters.
1,359 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 356 cases: 27 in older clusters; 13 in Persiaran Maktab, Bandar Sri, and Putra Satu clusters; 169 close-contact screenings; and 146 other screenings. Sarawak reports 308 cases: 124 in existing clusters, 120 close-contact screenings, and 64 other screenings.
Johor reports 129 cases: 60 in existing clusters, 36 close-contact screenings, and 33 other screenings. Penang reports 113 cases: six in existing clusters, 50 close-contact screenings, and 57 other screenings.
Kuala Lumpur reports 97 local cases: four in older clusters, two in Bandar Sri cluster, 43 close-contact screenings, and 48 other screenings. Perak reports 71 cases: 33 in existing clusters, 27 close-contact screenings, and 11 other screenings. Sabah reports 70 cases: one in an older cluster, 19 in Tenegang and Siasai Tamu clusters, 30 close-contact screenings, and 20 other screenings. Kelantan reports 63 cases: nine in older clusters, eight in Paloh Rambai cluster, 32 close-contact screenings, and 14 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan reports 49 cases: 37 in existing clusters, seven close-contact screenings, and five other screenings. Kedah reports 44 cases: five in older clusters, seven in Perusahaan LPK cluster, 21 close-contact screenings, and 11 other screenings. Melaka reports 32 cases: 29 in existing clusters, one close-contact screening, and two other screenings.
Pahang reports 10 cases: five in existing clusters, four close-contact screenings, and one other screening. Putrajaya reports eight cases: two in Putra Satu cluster, four close-contact screenings, and two other screenings. Terengganu reports six cases, all close-contact screenings. And Labuan reports three cases: one in Merinding cluster, and two close-contact screenings.
Perlis reports no new cases today.
One new case today is imported, in Kuala Lumpur.
The deaths reported today, both in Sarawak, are a 72-year-old woman with diabetes, hypertension, and asthma; and an 89-year-old man with diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, heart disease and Tuberculosis.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, I couldn’t remember where I’d read it before, whether it was a serious article or just sarcasm. The only “Catholics” I knowingly interact with these days are family members and most of them don’t even bother with church anymore.
sab
@danielx: Isn’t he a lapsed Catholic turned protestant?
Elizabelle
Another Pew item from March 9, 2021. Black Americans stand out for their concern about COVID-19; 61% say they plan to get vaccinated or already have
Dorothy A. Winsor
My writer group zoomed last night. There were 9 of us there and all but one had had at least one shot. The guy who had none had previously experienced severe anaphylactic shock from a vaccine and his doctor told him not to get one.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: On the more serious side, by the dictionary, to evangelize means to “convert or seek to convert (someone) to Christianity.” That behavior is not limited Christianity. There are atheists who engage in it too.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I’m just an asshole.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Why are atheists trying to convert people to Christianity?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Same diff.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Heh. I had an argument about this with a fellow atheist friend. I told him Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins were a couple of proselytizing assholes. He just couldn’t wrap his head around it.
guachi
Bremmer made a mistake in his tweet. The higher number of non-Evangelical whites and the smaller number is Evangelical whites.
As to no Muslim or Jewish numbers, my guess is not enough polled. Three are 2-3x as many atheists in America as Muslims or Jews so you’d need fewer to get poll results.
Matt McIrvin
@OzarkHillbilly: I am actually kind of astonished it’s that high among atheists, given how many very vocal atheists are some kind of libertarian cranks who probably believe COVID happened because they banned DDT or something equally insane.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
The line between proselytizing and persuading can be fuzzy.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
The free market god is God
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Culling the herd works for me. //
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, that tweet jumped out at me too.
What’s an evangelical as opposed to an evangelical Protestant?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Maybe, but I feel no need whatsoever to persuade anyone to convert to atheism. I also feel no need to defend my atheism (which my buddy apparently did).
As far as I am concerned, whatever works for a person is fine with me so long as they can leave it at that.
Hildebrand
@guachi: I think the classification identifier in the poll is the problem – they usually make a distinction between White Protestants (mainline – think Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc) and White Evangelicals.
Anecdotally, I can tell you all the Lutherans and Episcopalians I know have been signing up for, and getting, the vaccine as soon as they are able – White and Black.
Elizabelle
@Hildebrand: Interesting.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@OzarkHillbilly: Sometimes you got be. Remember these were the guys who called BS on religion by pointing how immoral a lot of the behavior really is.
gvg
@leeleeFL:
Black vaccine hesitancy seems to be going down. My theory is the large number of white folks getting it with rich folks paying politicians to jump lines has convinced them it’s safe and desirable. I think it will take some time but most of them will come round.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Found the source of the religion vs vaccine data. It was Pew Research. (see Fact #4).
He misread the numbers. 54% of white evangelicals intend to or have already gotten the vaccine, 45% of the same group definitely do NOT. The white evangelicals have the smallest percentage intending to get vaccinated but it’s still a majority.
Somebody skimmed the first paragraph a little too quickly.
Soprano2
More good news – for the first time since last July, my county reported no deaths from COVID for the past week! Here the numbers are going in the right direction – deaths and infections are going down, and vaccinations are going up. Also, my employer announced another clinic for employees, and this time any employee’s eligible relatives can also be signed up! It’s getting better and better all the time.
Soprano2
I think that’s probably right. Seeing that they’re getting the same vaccines as white people in the same clinics makes them a lot more confident. Now if only the press would cover the hesitancy of Republicans and white evangelicals in the same way they covered black hesitancy……
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Here in PA we are still officially on group 1A. But I notice on the state’s tracking data that rates of vaccination reached a peak and have been dropping sharply over the last 7-10 days. I’m guessing that means they’ve reached most of the high-priority people who intend to get vaccinated, so will give them incentive to go ahead and open up 1B.
The city of Philadelphia seems to be doing a lot better. I’ve heard from numerous young healthy adults who were able to get appointments.
Taken4Granite
@Dorothy A. Winsor: People like your friend are a big reason why the overwhelming majority of vaccine refuseniks are jerks. Your friend has a good medical reason for not getting the vaccine, so he has to depend on herd immunity, and the people who flat-out refuse to get vaccinated are hindering if not preventing the development of herd immunity.
If the vaccine refuseniks were only endangering themselves, I could live with that. They aren’t just endangering themselves.
Sloane Ranger
Wednesday in the UK we had 5605 new cases. This is an increase of about 220 from Tuesday’s figure but a decrease of 3.3% in the rolling 7-day average. New cases by nation,
England – 4615 (up 32)
Northern Ireland – 139 (down 35)
Scotland – 692 (up 195)
Wales – 159 (up 32).
Deaths – There were 98 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is a decrease of 34.6% in the rolling 7-days average. Deaths by nation, England – 92, Scotland – 3, Wales – 3 and Northern Ireland – 0.
Testing – 839,954 tests were conducted on Tuesday, 23 March. This is a decrease in the rolling 7-day average of 5.2%. The estimated testing capacity of the labs as of Thursday, 18 March was 764,492.
Hospitalisations – As of Monday, 22 March, 5407 people were in hospital and 711people were on ventilators on Tuesday, 23rd. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions on 20th March was down 20.4%.
Vaccinations – As of 23 March, a total of 28,653,523 people had received the 1st dose of a vaccine and 2,532,839 had received both doses. This means that 54.4% of adults 18 and over have received their 1st dose and 4.8%, both.
marklar
@Baud:
“Why are atheists trying to convert people to Christianity?”
A: So that our place in the line to get vaccines is shorter?
Matt McIrvin
@gvg: Also, the vaccine is no longer the thing Trump is hyping as the latest miracle cure–that gets rid of one big source of reasonable mistrust.
I’ve seen some pushback against the “black vaccine hesitancy” story since the most hesitant group is white Republicans, and at this point the main reason fewer black people are vaccinated is that they can’t get it.
Another Scott
@YY_Sima Qian: The last line seems to be a misreading/mistyping.
(It’s extremely annoying when “news” tweets don’t include the original source.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Suzanne
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: But in PA, our new cases are climbing. Concerning.
Deaths are down a lot as vaccination picks up. SuzMom, Mr. Suzanne, and I are now fully vaccinated. Having a hard time locating a vaccine for Spawn the Elder, as he is 17 and can only get the Pfizer. His dad and I are trying in both PA and AZ.
Another Scott
@Elizabelle:
OTOH, PNAS – No evidence that collective-good appeals best promote COVID-related health behaviors:
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Uncle Cosmo
ABOUT FUCKING TIME!!! According to my PCP – who is also an MPH and has been following the pandemic with keen interest since its start – it has been common knowledge for many months that Thuh Varss’s main route of infection and transmission is via the nose, not the mouth or tear duct or face or hands. Yet none of our Public Health Authorities thought to connect the dots that maybe a (if not the) significant risk factor with eating & drinking in public was people breathing through their noses.
I now await (fruitlessly, I’m sure) the controlled double-blinded trials to establish
All of which could easily have been done last spring if our PHAs had only gotten their own noses out of their elegant mathematical models and into the goddamned real world.** And we would be far further along the curve of returning to something approximating normal.
** NB I say this as a retired applied math/stat guy with decades of experience devising, updating and running mathematical models.
Robert Sneddon
@Uncle Cosmo: People talk with their mouths, exhaling virus-laden particles in all directions in shops, in the pub, in restaurants, in church, on buses, planes, cars etc. and the people around them in those poorly-ventilated spaces inhale those virus particles, usually through their nose. People performing serious exercise like in gyms breathe deeply through their mouths as well, of course which doesn’t help.
A mask that covers nose and mouth works a lot better to reduce the spread of this or any other respiratory disease in both directions than something that only covers the nose. Saying that the sorts of masks and bandannas Joe and Jane Public are wearing in this pandemic are not doing that great a job at filtering out this virus but they’re better than going without, statistically speaking.
Matt McIrvin
@Uncle Cosmo:
Is that true? I’d heard it mostly goes OUT through the mouth, especially while people are talking or singing. I can see it mostly going IN through the nose because that’s how you inhale most of the time.
Uncle Cosmo
@Geo Wilcox: After 40 days of eligibility fruitlessly working the official routes to a vaccination appointment, I walked up to the pharmacy in the supermarket where I was food shopping and asked if they had any leftovers. Got one within the hour. And (naturally) since then my e-mail and text have been inundated with We have the vaccine, sign up now!
sab
@Hildebrand: Episcopalians are not actually Protestants. We are schismatics- we have apostolic succession of bishops back to St Peter but we don’t follow the pope. Catholics but not Roman Catholics.
The Moar You Know
@OzarkHillbilly: They are, though. I used to be one myself. “Religion is a disease”, all that shit.
Then I got hit by a clue-by-four. Who the fuck am I to try and take away whatever gets someone through the night?
Genuinely ashamed of my previous behavior and hope I didn’t do anyone any harm. I suspect/hope I was just an annoying joke to most folks who had to listen to my idiocy.
Believe what you want, it’s you who you gotta make peace with. Just don’t get in my face with it the same way I used to do with other people. It’s rude, but fundamentally worse, it’s just unkind.
The Moar You Know
@Uncle Cosmo: I can’t breathe through my nose. Maybe about 5-10% tops. Never have, and won’t be able to unless I get major sinus surgery, which I’m just not willing to do. If you duct-taped my mouth shut I’d die, albeit very slowly.
But more to the point – the nose-only mask is a fraud. You need the nose/mouth cover to protect others and you just should not be eating indoors in restaurants right now.
Sloane Ranger
@sab:
True, I’m Church of England myself and, when I went to confirmation classes, we were taught the Nicene Creed, which contains the line, “We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.”
Dorothy L Sayers once described the CofE as “the Great Compromise”.
Bill Arnold
@leeleeFL:
A mix of selfishness and gullibility making them receptive to rampant malignant anti-vaxxer propaganda. (Speaking mainly about evangelicals to be clear.)
(I fully support investigative efforts to hunt down the sources and amplifiers of said propaganda, both individuals and larger entities, and to destroy their influence. If they are nation states, then to cause collapse of their governments.)
Bill Arnold
[just to get an edit window for previous comment]
Hildebrand
@sab: Some may say that, but Cranmer, Hooker, and the rest of the earliest English Reformation scholars and church leaders would disagree (as would the folks at the Episcopal seminary in Chicago where I studied for a couple of terms). Episcopalians are in the line of apostolic succession, but the actions of the 16th century definitely put the whole communion into the protestant camp.
Of course, the Roman Catholics see the whole lot of protestants as schismatic, at best.
Interestingly enough (and this has nothing to do with the 16th century family feud in the church), in the 9th-mid 11th centuries, there were a good number of theologians and church types who described Muslims as schismatics, not unbelievers.
Of course, this all changed when the Byzantines blew a gasket when the the Seljuk Turks won the Battle of Manzikert and took a good chunk of their claimed territory (including Jerusalem). The Byzantines proceeded to send all sorts of doom laden messages to the Holy Roman Empire and the Church, which got them on edge, which led to a decided change in attitudes and language, which led to the catastrophic decision to get the Crusades rolling.
Of course, this has nothing to do with how we categorize mainline churches – I just find the whole business fascinating thinking about Christians a long time ago generally accepting that Muslims were fellow believers. One of the 11th century Popes even mentioned in his correspondence to a North African Emir that they worshipped the same God.
Bill Arnold
@Elizabelle:
A poll question with a hypothetical, e.g. “If Trump had been declared winner of the election, would you trust the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines?”, would be fun.
I suspect that there would be a small shift in anti-vax sentiments among Democrats and a huge shift to pro-vax sentiments among Republicans.
StringOnAStick
@OzarkHillbilly: Bruce Cockburn has a song that includes these lines:
“Wave the flag, wave the bible, wave your sex or your business degree. Whatever you want but don’t wave that thing at me.”
The contempt when he sings that last line is palpable, and he’s a serious Christian. I love his guitar work and songs but I always have to edit out one overtly religious song per album, mainly because they are too “hookie” and I don’t want them stuck in my head.
J R in WV
@Uncle Cosmo:
Your theory is interesting, and I imagine a “nose mask” for use while eating at a restaurant might provide some small amount of protection.
But the experience of the choir practice that resulted in the vast majority of the singers becoming infected after a 2 hour exposure appears to refute your hypothesis. No one sings through their nose.
Ever.
Well, maybe Woody Woodpecker? ;~)
Uncle Cosmo
@Matt McIrvin: If it goes “out through the mouth” it’s because it circled around from the nasal cavity. The nose is where it lurks – that’s the only point in the respiratory system that offers it any shelter from the body’s natural defenses.
Bona fides: I spent roughly a decade working under contract to the US Army in chemical and biological warfare defense. I was a math/stat/modeler with no real background in biosciences but I learned a few things:
Most BW agents aim to lodge in the deep lung where they can grow fairly readily until there’s too much of them to overcome. Therefore most of them are released in aerosol or droplet form to be inhaled. However, the human respiratory system has a whole shitpot of defenses (antibiotics in saliva, cilia to intercept incoming crap, etc.) dedicated to keeping the nasties out of there.[1]
It turns out that only particles/droplets in a fairly narrow size range can reach the deep lung and lodge there to multiply. Smaller ones go right back out; larger ones get detoxified and/or intercepted. It is extremely difficult to deliberately engineer BW agent dispersal to meet this criterion[2,3]; it is next to impossible to have this occur by unintentional, natural processes. Most particles/droplets are larger and therefore get flagged down in places like the nasopharynx, and may stick in the epithelial cells, on cilia, and/or in mucus.
Again IIUC, it is believed that SARS-CoV-2 generally enters the body from the nasopharynx by way of the bloodstream[4], and in fact customarily attacks the lungs (as well as other organs) via this “back door.”
Meanwhile inhaled droplets bearing SARS-CoV-2 lodged in the epithelial cells, cilia, or mucus of the nasopharynx are not readily reached by antibodies that travel in the bloodstream. It is conceivable that the beasties therein could survive (if not reproduce) in such an environment[5] – perhaps to be exhaled in droplets into the ambient air – even if the host has survived a previous infection or has been successfully vaccinated.
It seems to me that it is not conceptually difficult to test whether people are carrying significant viral loads in their nasal cavities, to what extent these are spreading virus-bearing droplets into the ambient air, and whether there are interventions that would effectively reduce the presence of the virus and thus the risk of the subject being infected and infecting others: Perform a nasal irrigation with saline solution and then assay the outflow for virus; seat the subject in a sealed room for a specified interval with a well-defined and -controlled airflow and detectors or collectors in several places; re-assay virus presence with another nasal irrigation or a swab. To test interventions, identify several physiologically benign compounds that kill the virus in vitro[6], implement them in a variety of delivery systems (nasal spray, vaporizer, neti pot), and assay viral load before, shortly after, a few days later.
Sorry this took so long to draft. FTR, be advised that I have no financial or personal interest in any of this beyond wanting the pandemic to get stomped flat ASAP so I can get back to traveling, dancing, and enjoying friends & fambly. And I am absolutely prepared to admit I’ve been wrong about this once I am presented (and have an opportunity to evaluate) evidence to that effect. OK?
Notes:
[1] Otherwise, e.g., sheep pastures, with anthrax spores lurking in the dirt, would be biohazard zones – or shepherds would be immune to Bacillus anthracis.
[2] It is not widely known that Aum Shinrikyo originally intended to kill thousands in Tokyo with airborne anthrax. They easily manufactured the spores and IIUC actually released them from a tall building – but the particles clumped up due to electrostatic forces and got washed into the sewers. The sarin attack was Plan B.
[3] The anthrax letters mailed soon after 9/11 scared the crap out of the authorities because the white powder wafting out of the envelopes was electrostatically stabilized in the proper size range. Whoever sent them knew what s/he was doing.
[4] Possibly the lymphatic system as well, though I’ve seen no evidence either way. Our Army studies suggested that victims of weaponized Yersinia pestis who had contracted pneumonic plague were likely to release infectious droplets that when inhaled by another person would be stopped in the nasopharynx; the bugs might enter the body via the lymphatic system but would then cause the less-nasty bubonic form of plague.
[5] Remember, viruses aren’t really alive and don’t necessarily have to reproduce or die – if the environment isn’t actively trying to disassemble them, they can just sit there waiting for the next bus out.
[6] This is now being done by a number of institutions – though I clearly recall anecdotal evidence from some months ago that one such compound (0.7% cetylpyridinium chloride, active agent in some anti-gingivitis mouthwashes) was effective. Which BTW is the active ingredient in an Israel nasal spray called (IIRc) Taffix available in the UK but not here.
Another Scott
@StringOnAStick: “If I had a rocket launcher” has always stuck with me.
Cheers,
Scott.
Bill Arnold
@Uncle Cosmo:
Interesting, thanks.
COVID-19 superspreader events with a single (unmasked!) index patient are interesting, because some of them suggest (mechanical arguments) that high-volume exhalation through the mouth is involved.
Happy to hear that you got a vaccine shot.
JMS
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Montco seems to be opening up a bit, finally. The county has opened a third site and has scheduled people who have signed up through Jan 31, which now also includes me. Scheduling those who signed up in Feb and March should go much faster, so I’d expect to move out of 1A soon.
evodevo
@sab:
Yes, and most of the Baptist friends I used to have made it VERY clear THEY were NOT Protestants lol – that they had been around long before the 1500’s and don’t get them mixed up with those riffraff Pentecostals and such… OKAAY…
Scout211
Good news for Bill in Glendale CA and all other Californians who haven’t been eligible for the vaccine so far:
https://www.kcra.com/article/gov-newsom-news-conference-march-25/35928240
dnfree
@sab: my brother was baptized in the Methodist church, but he had to get rebaptized to marry an Episcopalian. If he’d been Catholic, his baptism would have been accepted. On the other hand, our daughter’s United Church of Christ baptism was acceptable to the Greek Orthodox Church, so go figure.
dnfree
@Sloane Ranger: as Methodists growing up, we were taught the creeds mentioning the catholic church were okay if lower-case catholic, because that just meant universal.